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November 16, 2015 – Review
Dispatch: ARTBO and Medellín
Adam Kleinman
While ruminating on the most curious aspect of ARTBO—namely that it is a public-private partnership run by the city’s Chamber of Commerce with “allies” such as Uber—I considered the reasons why the organizers of my trip were taking an international band of curators, collectors, and critics not only to visit the fair, but also on a bus tour to appraise two other public-private cultural “success stories”—a new museum building and a series of urban renewal projects, both in Medellín. As such, this very model—the pooling together of public and private monies as a strategy to advance art and culture in Colombia as a marketable resource—could be the subject of this review. We might, moreover, consider how these instruments are being marketed to counter the country’s stigmatization as a narco-capital.
Now in its 11th year, ARTBO offers more of what you might expect: a main section offering the obligatory blend of local and international galleries, a few bijoux curated and themed sections, a talks program, and all the other trimmings of a well-heeled yet staid affair. To its credit though, the fair also presents ARTECÁMARA, a section dedicated to local artists without commercial representation, selected through an open call process. Given that …